"And peined hire to contrefeten chere Of court, and been astatelich of manere, And to be holden digne of reverence."
That is, she took pains to imitate the manners of the Court, &c.; whereas Mr Horne, with inconceivable ignorance of the meaning of words that occur in Chaucer a hundred times, writes "it gave her pain to counterfeit the ways of Court," thereby reversing the whole picture.
"And French she spake full fayre and fetisly,"
he translates "full properly and neat!" Dryden rightly calls her "the mincing Prioress;" Mr Horne wrongly says, "she was evidently one of the most high-bred and refined ladies of her time."
Chaucer says, of that "manly man," the Monk—
"Ne that a monk, when he is rekkeless, Is like to a fish that is waterless; This is to say, a monk out of his cloistre. This ilkè text held he not worth an oistre."
Mr Horne here modernizeth thus—
"Or that a monk beyond his bricks and mortar, Is like a fish without a drop of water, That is to say, a monk out of his cloister."
There can be no mortar without water, but the words do not rhyme except to Cockney ears, though the blame lies at the door of the mouth. "Bricks and mortar" is an odd and somewhat vulgar version of "rekkeless;" and to say that a monk "beyond his bricks and mortar" is a monk "out of his cloister," is not in the manner of Chaucer, or of any body else.
Chaucer says slyly of the Frere, that